HOMEWORK 3: SOLUTIONS - MATH 341

INSTRUCTOR: George Voutsadakis

Problem 1 (a) Show that if G is a group and a, b G, then |aba1 | = |b|.
(b) Show that if G is a group and a, b G, then |ab| = |ba|.
Solution:
(a) We show that {n > 0 : (aba1 )n = e} = {n > 0 : bn = e}. This will immediately
imply that |aba1 | = |b|. We have
(aba1 )n = e (aba1 )(aba1 ) . . . (aba1 ) = e
| {z }
n
a bb . . . }b a1 = e
| {z
n
abn a1 = e
bn = a1 ea
bn = e

(b) Similarly, we show that {n > 0 : (ab)n = e} = {n > 0 : (ba)n = e}. We have
(ab)n = e (ab)(ab) . . . (ab) = e
| {z }
n
a (ba)(ba) . . . (ba) b = e
| {z }
n1
ba (ba)(ba) . . . (ba) bb1 = beb1
| {z }
n1
(ba)(ba) . . . (ba) = e
| {z }
n
(ba)n = e.

Problem 2 (a) List all the cyclic subgroups of S3 . Does S3 have a noncyclic proper sub-
group?
(b) List all the cyclic subgroups of D4 . Does D4 have a noncyclic proper subgroup?
Solution:
(a) Recall that S3 = {1, (12), (13), (23), (123), (132)}. Checking one by one all the sub-
groups generated by a single element we get the following cyclic subgroups:
1 = hei
{1, (12)} = h(12)i
{1, (13)} = h(13)i
{1, (23)} = h(23)i
{1, (123), (132)} = h(123)i = h(132)i.

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 It is not very tough to see that adjoining to any cyclic subgroup of order 2 an element
of order 3 or to any cyclic subgroup of order 3 an element of order 2 will yield the
whole group S3 . Thus, there are no noncyclic proper subgroups of S3 .

(b) Recall that D4 = {0 , , 2 , 3 , , , 2 , 3 }. Again we may check that the list of its
cyclic subgroups is
1 = h0 i
{0 , , 2 , 3 } = hi = h3 i
{0 , 2 } = h2 i
{0 , } = h i
{0 , } = h i
{0 , 2 } = h2 i
{0 , 3 } = h3 i
G = {0 , 2 , , 2 } is a noncyclic proper subgroup of D4 .

Problem 3 Let G be a group with no nontrivial proper subgroups.

(a) Show that G must be cyclic.

(b) What can you say about the order of G?

Solution:

(a) If G = {e}, then G = hei, whence G is cyclic. On the other hand, if G 6= {e}, there
must be an a G, a 6= e. Consider the cyclic subgroup hai generated by a. We have
{e} 6= hai G. Hence, since G does not have any nontrivial proper subgroups, we
must have hai = G and, therefore, G is cyclic with generator a.

(b) In part (a) we showed that any nonidentity element of the group must be a generator
of the group. Thus, the order n of the generator a must be such that all ak , 0 < k < n,
are generators of G. This is the case if and only if n is a prime.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Problem 4 Let = and = .
3 8 4 1 6 7 2 5 6 4 1 2 7 8 5 3
Calculate:

(a) and

(b) 2 and 2

(c) the inverses 1 and 1

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(d) the orders || and | |.
Solution:
(a)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
=
3 8 4 1 6 7 2 5 6 4 1 2 7 8 5 3
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
= .
7 1 3 8 2 5 6 4
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
=
6 4 1 2 7 8 5 3 3 8 4 1 6 7 2 5
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
=
1 3 2 6 8 5 4 7

(b)
2 = (
)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
=
3 8 4 1 6 7 2 5 7 1 3 8 2 5 6 4
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
= .
2 3 4 5 8 6 7 1
2 = (
)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
=
7 1 3 8 2 5 6 4 6 4 1 2 7 8 5 3
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
=
5 8 7 1 6 4 2 3

(c)
1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1 =
3 8 4 1 6 7 2 5
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
= .
4 7 1 3 8 5 6 2
1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1 =
6 4 1 2 7 8 5 3
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
=
3 4 8 2 7 1 5 6

(d)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
=
3 8 4 1 6 7 2 5
= (134)(28567).

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
=
6 4 1 2 7 8 5 3
= (1386)(24)(57).

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 From the above cyclic decompositions we can easily see that || = 15 and | | = 4.

Problem 5 (a) Show that if and in Sn are disjoint cycles, and = , then || =
lcm(||, ||).

(b) Show that an m-cycle is an even permutation if and only if m is odd.

Solution:

(a) We need to show that lcm(||,||) = 1 and that, for no 0 < n < lcm(||, ||) is it the
case that n = 1. Let l = lcm(||, ||). Then l = p|| = q||, for some integers p, q.
Thus
l = ()l
= l l
= p|| q||
= 11
= 1.
Now, if n = 1, we must have ()n = 1, whence n n = 1. Since and are disjoint,
this yields n = 1 and n = 1. For this to happen ||\n and ||\n, whence l\n, i.e.,
l n.

(b) Let = (a1 a2 . . . am ) be an m-cycle. Then = (a1 am1 )(a1 am2 ) . . . (a1 a2 ). Thus
is even if and only if m 1 is even, i.e., if and only if m is odd.